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Friday, July 18, 2003

It's easy to pile on Barry Bonds. In sports history, there have been few more detestable people. Rude. Moody. Self-centered. So arrogant that he even called out Babe Ruth this week.

Babe Ruth!

Of course, it's easy to bash Bonds.

Especially if you're white.

Maybe Bonds was dead wrong to toot his horn at Ruth's expense.

"As a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out," Bonds said at his All-Star Game news conference. "And in the baseball world, Babe Ruth's everything, right? I got his slugging percentage, and I'll take his home runs, and that's it. Don't talk about him no more."

Maybe that's the outrageous rant of an insecure madman.

But I don't think so.

Step back for a second. Put aside your distaste for Bonds. Try to put yourself in his shoes. At least try to understand his perspective.

It's one that's shared by a lot of black players, a few of whom, such as Bonds, have had the nerve to share their opinions publicly even though they knew it would make people squirm.

"It has always boggled my mind that people still think Babe Ruth is the home run king," Gary Sheffield told USA Today last season. "Can you imagine if Babe Ruth were alive today? He couldn't even walk the streets. People would mob him.

"But it's like people don't pay attention to Hank Aaron. That's ridiculous."

That's the point Bonds was trying to make, although it was lost on many who saw only an unconscionable and illogical attack on baseball's all-time icon. That's why he said he was targeting Ruth's 714 home runs -- not Aaron's 755 -- as he makes his inexorable climb on the home run chart. With 643 home runs going into last night, he trailed only Willie Mays by 17, Ruth by 71 and Aaron by 112.

"Henry Aaron, to me, you're getting back to the history of it all," Bonds said. "I'm in the next generation of Negro League ballplayers, and Henry Aaron is one of the pioneers."

Bonds, who grew up in a baseball family and whose father, Bobby, played during Aaron's era, is acutely aware of the racial intolerance Aaron faced -- including cowardly death threats -- as he chased, caught and passed Ruth in 1974.

"He can keep that record," Bonds said. "Where he has come from, he has given us opportunities as African-American ballplayers."

It's really hard to blame Bonds for playing the race card this time. He has to feel as if history is treating him much the same shabby way it has Aaron.

When Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa staged their fabulous home run derby in 1998, it was the sports story of the year. They were chasing a magical record that had endured for 37 years. They were widely hailed -- rightfully so -- for making baseball fun again and bringing people back to the game after the disastrous strike in 1994.

But when Bonds hit 73 in 2001 to trump McGwire's 70? Hey, it's not that big of a deal. This is the home run age. Everybody is hitting 'em.

I remember writing that.

Even if Bonds blows past Mays, Ruth and Aaron, which he surely will if he stays healthy and plays a few more years, he'll never be remembered as anything close to Ruth's equal, which is sad and unfair because he's right there. And that's not just in this town where he's still remembered by too many, pathetically, for Sid Bream and the throw.

No one ever puts any sort of asterisk next to Ruth's monstrous accomplishments. No one points out that he didn't have to play against black pitchers and black outfielders, who might have taken a few of his home runs away. Or that he faced the same pitcher three or four times a game and didn't have to see a relief specialist with a 100 mph fastball and a nasty slider. Or that he had Lou Gehrig hitting behind him.

Ruth's legend will grow even more now that we know it couldn't have been easy for him, as a white man, to play so much day baseball.

Bonds' statistics, on the other hand, will have asterisks galore. It was the small ballparks. It was the lousy pitching. It was the tight baseballs. It was the steroids.

Part of that is the result of Bonds' surly attitude, to be sure. But part of it is society's problem.